Dante’s Inferno lead designer Greg Rizzer has said that it was a “big decision” to include co-op play in the upcoming Trials of St. Lucia DLC.

Speaking to VG247 during a round-table interview, Rizzer said that the development team wanted to “differentiate itself” from the market, and online co-op “blows the scope of the game”" way up there.

“One of the things we wanted to do was differentiate ourselves from the market,” said Rizzer. “Taking a game online blows the scope of your product way up. So when they were crafting the single-player, the co-op team didn’t start production until the single-player was well along. Then, we looked at DLC instead for the co-op in order because we wanted to minimize the risk of a shipping slip.

“So since this was a big experience pack with leaderboards, ratings, etc., it immediately increased the scope of the product. So since we didn’t want to hurt the single-player, we waited and added it as DLC”.

Rizzer also revealed that since St. Lucia flies around, there were tech limitations to her with her different movements and mechanics. Therefore, not only did she not fit into the spaces designed for the single-player experience, she didn’t fit in with the single-player part of the story either.

Also, because of how Lucia works, split-screen co-op would not have worked for her either.

“You need ample space for Lucia to be how she is,” said Rizzer. “We could not due splitscree for this because iif you try to, you have to render characters on the same screen and in order to do that we would have lost 60FPS due to technical cuts.

“Personally, I miss couch play co-op a lot, but as games get more and more complicated and complex it is becoming where online gaming is taking over that whole genre”.

Trails of St. Lucia lands on PS3 and Xbox 360 April 29 for $9.99/800 MSP.

You can read the rest of our discussion with Rizzer through here and here.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/25/visceral-left-co-op-out-of-dantes-inferno-to-avoid-release-slip/feed/4Visceral says that St. Lucia is not a “reskin” of Dantehttp://www.vg247.com/2010/03/25/visceral-says-that-st-lucia-is-not-a-reskin-of-dante/
http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/25/visceral-says-that-st-lucia-is-not-a-reskin-of-dante/#commentsThu, 25 Mar 2010 20:11:29 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=87318

During our round-table interview with Dante’s Inferno Greg Rizzer, the lead designer told participants that the character of St. Lucia was not just a “reskin of Dante”, but was instead built separately from the main game in order to obtain proper optimization.

“One of the things we had to do was to create Lucia as a separate character,” said Rizzer. “We didn’t want a character that was just a re-skined Dante.

“Also, in order to maintain 60FPS, as soon as we created her and her wings, we were aware that with the inclusion of co-op means you would want more enemies for her to help attack. So, what we did was go through existing characters from the single-player and optimized the enemies.

“Then, we looked for areas where we could save time and space and redo the characters. That way, the game always runs at 60FPS. There was also a budget meter implemented so that when you go to create your own trial, the budget meter keeps the you from blowing the budget and causing the game to lose frame rate”.

According to Rizzer, St. Lucia not only differentiates herself from Dante in looks, but in combat as well.

“Gamers are savvy enough to know when its just a new coat of paint, so we wanted her to be different, ” said Rizzer. “Lucia is an angel and has wings, so where as Dante is 70/30 ground and air combat, Lucia is 70/30 percent air and ground combat. The exact opposite, really.

“So we conceptualized her so that she really feels different to other characters in this genre. She’s light, quick, and her abilities are different, she has an upgrade tree, and she has this kinetic eye energy attack that is both unique and ranged”.

New enemies have been added to the mix as well, and these include ones the team wanted in the main game but ran out of time and space for.

“Because the size and scope of development, there are always characters that you run out of time with, so we finished some of the enemies that didn’t make it into the final product,” revealed Rizzer. “That was a great opportunity.

“One of the things we brought in was the Dark Forest DLC characters, and you can use them in the level editor for your trials. There is also a new one, The Summoner, which was left out of the main game. What’s really cool is that you can tell him which enemies to spawn, and until he is killed, keeps spawning waves of enemies.

“There just was not enough time for him to be put into the single-player game. Oh, and there is also the new Fire Sprite- which is a fire version of the unbaptized babies, which we there in as well.”

The Trails of St. Lucia, complete with level editor, will be made available April 29 on PS3 and Xbox 360.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/25/visceral-says-that-st-lucia-is-not-a-reskin-of-dante/feed/2Visceral wants to “foster a sense of community” with Trials of St. Lucia DLChttp://www.vg247.com/2010/03/25/visceral-wants-to-foster-a-sense-of-community-with-trials-of-st-lucia-dlc/
http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/25/visceral-wants-to-foster-a-sense-of-community-with-trials-of-st-lucia-dlc/#commentsThu, 25 Mar 2010 19:44:28 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=87319

Visceral has said that it hopes the Trials of St. Lucia pack for Dante’s Inferno fosters a sense of community among players with its level editor.

Speaking during a round-table interview session VG247 was part of, lead designer Greg Rizzer said that he hopes the level editor has a long shelf life and gives gamers a reason to keep playing.

“When this comes out, we hope it does well,” he said. “We know it’s different, I mean, Trials HD’s level editor was a bit hard to use, and other games have had user created levels too, but what we are trying to do with Lucia is foster a sense of community.

“When you create the trials, people can rate it and there will be leaderboards where the community can get involved and earn points and medals for trying other user’s stuff. There is also a milestone system, where you play a level 5-10 times you get a milestone.

“Because of this, we hope the longevity is good and we waiting to see how it does. We want to create value for the DLC and keep people happy.

“It is a different product, as most DLC is just a new level or a new Map Pack. It also has co-op, and while not split screen, the co-op is fun and I cant wait for you guys to play because it brings a new component to the content.”

As far as continuing to support Dante’s Inferno with more DLC or adding more content to the level editor, Rizzer told us that the team plans to “wait and see how well this does first”.

Those wondering if the DLC was already included on the disc and just unlocked with a purchase can also wonder no more, because according to Rizzer, it was much too large to put onto one disc.

“No it is not on the disc,” he said. “It is a large expansion pack and it could not fit on the disc anyway”.

Trials of St. Lucia lands on PS3 and Xbox 360 April 29 for $9.99/800 MS Points.

We’ll have more on our round-table with Rizzer later. Meanwhile, check out a video of the level editor in action here.